William N. Law Blog: 12 Videos of Christmas

Thursday, December 21, 2017

12 Videos of Christmas

Television has always done a blissful job of capturing the warm, kind spirit of the holiday season. Over the decades, twinkly TV specials with popular singers and sugary sets have showered viewers with music and post-card imagery. No matter your background or religion, these shows had a way of reminding everyone that goodness was a universal virtue. [Photo above of Karen Carpenter]

Here are 12 stand-out videos from holiday specials of yore:

Here's Patti Page in 1955 singing Home for the Holidays...

Here's Page singing The Christmas Song...

Here's Rosemary Clooney in the late 1950s singing Let It Snow...

Here's Nat King Cole singing The Christmas Song in the late 1950s...

Here's Judy Garland with daughter Liza Minnelli and Jack Jones on her TV show in the early 1960s singing a medley of holiday songs...

Here's Frank Sinatra singing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas on The Dean Martin Show with members of both the Sinatra and Martin families in 1966...

Here are the Williams Brothers singing The Winter Weather and Winter Wonderland in the late 1960s...

Here's Johnny Mathis singing Sleigh Ride in the early 1970s...

Here are the Carpenters singing a killer arrangement of Santa Clause Is Coming to Town on the Perry Como Christmas Show in 1974...

Here's Karen Carpenter, with brother Richard on keyboard, singing Merry Christmas Darling on the U.K.'s Bruce Forsyth Show in 1978 (hence, "Happy Christmas, Brucie" at the end)...